APPRAISER: What can you tell me about this wonderful Rusty Heurlin?
GUEST: Well, I know my grandfather got it commissioned back in 1964. They were living in Fairbanks, and they took the family on a drive down to Ester, where, uh, Rusty lived and, and worked. My dad was about ten or 11 back then. He, he remembers faintly, but, uh, my grandfather went in a separate room with Rusty and discussed what kind of painting he wanted. And then they left, and about, uh, three months later, they had this, uh, nice painting delivered to their home.
APPRAISER: So now you've lived with this painting all your life.
GUEST: Yes, my, of course, my grandfather had it, um, passed it on to my mom and dad. They gifted it to me and, and my wife last year. So we have it hanging in our house. It's, uh, definitely has a lot of sentimental value. My parents grew up in Fairbanks, I grew up in California. They moved down, um, down to California in the '80s. But I always grew up hearing about Alaska, and wanting to, to go explore and, and move back, and this, this painting was part of it. It just really captures the mystique and the frontier of Alaska. So I always had this in my mind of, of just going to the unknown, and then I finally moved up, uh, when I was 18, and, um, and made the dream come true, yeah.
APPRAISER: So have you ever seen the Northern Lights?
GUEST: I have, yes. How close is this? It's hard to capture it, but it's, it's close. It, it's close-- it definitely brings back that feeling of, of seeing the lights for the first time.
APPRAISER: Rusty was born in Sweden-- his parents were visiting there-- in the late 19th century, and his family moved to the suburbs of Boston. And he studied art at the Fenway School of Illustration. He first came to Alaska in 1916, and then was in the military for a while, and then came back and stayed until he died at the age of 90, in 1986. He loved Alaska, obviously, and this painting is what makes Alaska Alaska. The snow, the musher, the Northern Lights. The palette-- uh, it's a really gentle, subtle blue. What I really like about the painting is, he really was able to capture quiet. That's an amazing accomplishment to me. It's oil on canvas. He's using his middle name, rather than Rusty. Painted in, as you said, 1964. Do you have any idea what he paid for it?
GUEST: I don't know-- I don't have a dollar figure. I, I can't assume it was a, a cheap, uh, painting. Back then, he was quite well known, Rusty was.
APPRAISER: Did you know that the Anchorage Museum has a piece quite similar to this? Oh, no, I didn't know that. Yeah, they have a number of his paintings. I would give it an auction estimate of between $40,000 and $60,000.
GUEST: Wow, that's more than I thought. (chuckling)
APPRAISER: And for insurance... Mm-hmm. ...I think maybe around $75,000.
GUEST: Okay, wow. Was not expecting that. (chuckles) That's quite astounding. Don't plan on selling it-- it's, it's a family piece.
